If people are seriously that offended by Awkwafina’s accent then boy do I have bad news for them about what a whole bunch of non-Black Gen Z’ers who grew up working class in Queens sound like.
This might be shocking news, but a statistic from a rando’s tweet that you assume is true is actually...*dun dun*...NOT. Took like 10 seconds to debunk, as it look like that idiot misread a Wikipedia article on Forest Hills.
No the idea that you can have a useful discussions of AAVE on Twitter or on the discussion boards of an entertainment blog is the biggest nonsense. Again this is not about AAVE its about people scoring points.
Nonsense. And the idea that discussing the use and exploitation of AAVE is somehow connected to the French Revolution is even bigger nonsense.
“Actually I would say the biggest issue going on here is white people weighing in on a dispute that has nothing to do with them.”
I’m sorry that no one’s accepting your title of Official Declarer of What Black People Want.
No where did he say only people from NYC speak this way, nor did he say that everyone in NYC talks this way.
If she was heavily into hip hop and rapping, she probably wasn’t hanging around Forest Hills the entire time anyway going entirely by the demographics.
I’m pretty sure the people objecting here are also not “black people” collectively, but “internet randos.”
Twitter not about discussing, it is about point scoring.
“staying out of an intracommunity dispute that has nothing to do with you is out of the question.”
Like “black people” are a hive-mind. That’e the whole fucking issues, individuals on twitter thinking they are general consensus on things cause they yell a lot. Loudest voice wins.
This “controversy” is fucking idiotic. She grew up in an extremely urban environment, and learned to speak from the people around her, the shows she watched, and the music she listened to. There’s no appropriation, that’s just how people from NYC talk.
I await the discussion about the Wu Tang Clan and their appropriation of Asian culture.
There actually were people telling her she should sound Asian the first time this happened. It was dumb.
Whenever people are clutching pearls about AAVE, they never do a good job of explaining to anyone how making up words and then scolding white people for embracing something that gets deeply ingrained within our culture is reasonable, necessary, or important. Instead, we get furious harassment, endless overstatement of…
Thank you for that articulate and clear statement. Here is my rebuttal:
No, it doesn’t.
I feel a bit strange about this. Is it cultural appropriation to participate in a mode of speech that has more or less entered the mainstream, an outcome that in my heart of hearts seems like, basically, a Good Thing?
I always thought it was just a Michael Rappaport impression.